This powerful commentary is from Tina Staik. Tina is one of the most astute commentators on the Internet. The title of this communication is-

Psychological warfare, secrecy, oil, drugs, smoke screens and the war on democracy in our country--and world

~~~ PASS THIS ON IF YOU WISH ~~~ Radical conservatives have tried for decades to
maintain a stratified society in which an entitled few hoard the wealth and
privileges, while the majority are "silenced" via spending diversions--the
primary ones being war, war games and tax cuts for the rich. Since WWII,
the U.S. has involved itself nonstop in wars throughout the world. In
addition to boosting economy and war profiteering, war is also a great
means to justify ignoring urgent health, education and environment needs,
fulfilling one the main aims of conservatives: maintain status quo
hierarchical social order. Meanwhile, deregulation has permitted
corporations to literally takeover our three branches of government and
major media, while Christian religious fundamentalists have used their
power to build support for conservatism by characterizing
liberals/democrats as "immoral" and "godless." If given opportunity,
radical conservatives intend to end to public education, social security
and social welfare programs, thereby, creating the kind of environment in
which moral dictates by the church further "free" corporations to increase
profits without being "hassled" by liberals (as they have in theocracies in
ME).

SPEAK OUT against the so-called GOP stimulus bill, DEMAND repeal of
outrageous tax cuts that wiped out the surplus, CALL FOR an end to war
mongering and staged attacks to justify more war, covert operations and
drug profiteering, URGE expansion of peace keeping forces promoting rule of
law, de-arming of Afghanistan war lords, and EDUCATION as primary means of
ending terrorism. Make your voices be known to STOP justifying war and
suppression of democracy and civil rights throughout the world with
propaganda lies, hoaxes, lies, schemes, staged attacks! END dependence on
oil! Call or send email today - http://www.mailblasterdot.com - Contact United
Nations at - inquiries@un.org -

CALL Senator Daschle at (202) 224-2321 to urge him not to expand
deregulation (has he been bought?) and instead pass bills to regulate
corporate practices! SEE REPORT announcing Daschle's plans to introduce a
bill next week to further expand deregulation--ending the New Deal
protections passed by Roosevelt that led to raising the standards of life
for so many Americans! Haven't we discovered that deregulation is a LIE, a
scheme, an abismal failure of government to protect its citizens?
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41829-2001Nov30.html -

COMMENTS:
Do Americans really support tribunals, wire tapping, torture, McCarthyistic
attacks on leaders and academics, or are we merely being bombarded with
strategic media reporting aimed at "persuading" us to join a hypothetical
"majority"? It's called use of social behavioral research findings to shape
human behavior.

Let's face it. Psychological warfare has been used on us for decades in the
war against democratization of our country--and world.

As a result of years of brainwashing, Americans have come to accept an
array of self- and other-harming attitudes and behaviors, including capital
punishment, legal drugs as panacea, protests as "anti-American,"
destruction of the environment, all-you-can-eat gluttony, all-you-can-get
credit card indebtedness, "free trade" profits at the expense of people
and/or environment, "free speech" profits of pro-violence/sex entertainment
and hate groups at the expense of "targeted" groups' civil rights to live
free from fear" and harm. The list goes on.

Consider the recent shift in attitudes toward gun control, for example.
Prior to "the election" campaign, there was overwhelming support for gun
control measures. Since "the election," after NRA invested millions
(billions?) of dollars "associating" guns with "freedom," school shootings
barely get media coverage, and even Democrats have dropped this issue
(bought?).

The events since "the election" have opened our eyes to things "done" to
U.S. citizens that have put us so far behind citizens in any other
industrial democracy. More specifically, the billions of dollars invested
in research-based campaigns aimed at "shaping" our beliefs and
behaviors...brainwashing American citizens in the name of corporate interests.

Isn't it time psychological warfare was considered a crime? What about our
rights to be informed about the issues we deeply care about, ones deeply
affecting vital, life changing decision making? Shouldn't there be ethical
standards against propaganda campaigns and "research" aimed at misleading
and confusing the public in the interest of corporations?

To our detriment, American citizens have been and are being brainwashed to
"accept" a People-and-Environment-Sacrificing-in-the-Name-of-Big-Profits
philosophy. To top it off, we've also been brainwashed to be "proud" of
this as the "American way"! Wrong!

This "philosophy" is one perspective, but has little to do with Americans
and democratic ideals. Quite the contrary--one may argue that it attacks
American ideals for self-determinism because it is aimed at turning the
majority into sheep for the wolves.

This right wing conservative philosophy--because it has been backed by well
endowed supporters-- has turned us into the most wasteful, polluting,
debt-owing, and addicted (work, legal and illegal drugs, sex, TV) people in
the world--by far--there's no comparison. On the bright side, Americans are
among the finest, most sensitive, creative, tolerant and intelligent
people, thanks in large part to heroic people who have risked their lives
against all odds to promote opportunity and progress and education for ALL.
We've been far too trusting. We have not done our part to demand our
government protect us from this harm! Our forefathers warned us against
unchecked power. We deserve better treatment than this! Citizen
participation and oversight of government and its agencies is a must!
- http://www.thebushsyndrome.com/article.php?sid=4&mode=nested&order=0 -

The philosophy of the radical conservatives is best summarized by Scrooge
in "The Christmas Carol," when in response to requests for money for the
perishing poor he stated, "If they are going to die, let them do it, and
decrease the surplus population."

The attacks on democracy are attacks on our intelligence, and they must stop.

Haven't we recently learned? These attacks are WHAT created terrorism in
one Middle Eastern country after another to begin with (and in one South
American country after another), and WHAT has trained and professionalized
and armed and funded most of the terrorists themselves.

These attacks on democracy in the United States are what have caused
millions of American citizens, particularly Blacks, Jews and Native
Americans, to live with terrorism for more than a century, while the rest
of us have been "protected" in our media-created "bubbles," thinking we
live in the "greatest democracy on earth"! (Our "child" experiment? Israel,
and its people, may be suffering from a similar fate.) These attacks on
democracy in our country are likely what explain the fact that our violent
crime rates are more comparable to those countries fighting bloody civil
wars, and four to twenty times higher than those of any other industrial
democracy. Is the civil war being fought behind the scenes?

These attacks on democracy have caused our most precious national resource,
children, to suffer and live in poverty, despair, without education, high
incidence of abuse and neglect. We have the least child-friendly laws.
These attacks on democracy in our country have perpetrated character
attacks of a countless number of leaders, like Clinton, who openly dared
embrace equality, diversity, democracy.

Furthermore, these attacks on democracy are increasingly professional,
seeking to stratify society into wolves, on the one side, who aim to prove
their supremacy by warring to dominate identified "inferiors," and sheep,
on the other, who rightly refuse to be subjugated, thus, come to be known
as "enemies." These attacks on democracy have "created" religious
extremists in the Middle East who shamelessly distort the Islamic faith for
political power, greed and gain, while also creating religious extremists
in the U.S. who despicably distort the teachings of Jesus in the Christian
faith to achieve the same.

Last, but not least, these attacks are WHAT have caused the loss of some of
our finest--Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders who were killed for their
beliefs in peace, democracy and progress for all, including John Kennedy,
Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Sadat and Rabin, just to name a few.

STOP the assassinations of leaders! NO country can call itself a
"democracy" governed by "rule of law" and continue to justify such barbaric
actions. War criminals and human rights abusers should be brought to
justice under United Nations International World Court. Besides, these
assassinations have abominably failed to end the violence, and instead
create either obedient zombies or suicidal terrorists.

Covert operations and connections between government officials, federal
agencies and Wall Street millionaire club must be questioned. How can we
trust our government, when its officials are locked into a system with
compromising conflicts of interest? Isn't this just a new form of plain ol'
corruption? Is it true that millions have perished in the so-called "Cold
War" to permit agents and military leaders to remain "functional"? Has
"communism deterrence" been a smoke screen, and, instead, has "deterring
democracy" been the real function of the CIA? Are attacks "staged" or
"allowed" to happen in the Middle East, South America--or our country--in
order to JUSTIFY wars and war profiteering activities, such as
proliferation of guns and weapons of mass destruction, terrorist training,
coup d'etat, etc.?

Is it a coincidence that war, recession, deficits, drugs, unemployment,
poverty, homelessness, impoverished educational institutions, war
profiteering and wire tapping are hallmarks of conservative ideologue
administrations since the 60s liberation movements?

Is the current administration trying to achieve what the Nixon
administration failed to do, that is, destroy the organizing efforts of the
opposition, democrats and liberals, by LEGALIZING tactics, such as wire
tapping, monitoring, secrecy, withholding presidential papers from public,
etc.? - http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/30/opinion/30LEWI.html -

Are attacks on civilians "staged" or "allowed" to happen to silence
citizens who would otherwise oppose war and wasteful spending on war/war
games, destruction of environment? Is finding ways to silence citizens who
demand reform of fraudulent election system and health and education needs
a greater priority of this administration, than civil rights and issues of
public interest?
- http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/jointchiefs_010501.html -

Why have drugs increased since the "war on drugs"? Is this merely a smoke
screen for war and drug profiteering? If so, is the "war on terrorism"
another lucrative smoke screen for war and drug profiteering?

In short, is "war" a means of diverting money from education and social
programs to war, war games and tax cuts for the rich to prevent people from
rising out of poverty and ignorance? Are "divide and conquer" tactics at
play to guarantee profits from war profiteering and drugs?

The role of religion in the attacks on democracy must also be questioned.
Given that we KNOW from history the power of fear-based religious beliefs
in controlling the "masses," is religion being used to create human beings
into rage-filled robots who are willing to murder, kill, lie, and with
blind loyalty sacrifice their lives to achieve the political agendas of
their "leaders"? What was the real lesson son Bush learned from father
Bush's experience with the religious right? Perhaps that father Bush failed
to recognize the power of the religious fundamentalism as a tool to gain
voters, especially women, by destroying the reputation of liberals as
godless and immoral?

After two decades of campaigns aimed at destroying the reputation of
feminists and liberals, the religious right have formed a new lobby group,
http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=5870 Christian
Reconstructionists' "Operation Potomac" with connections to DeLay and Bush
ready to propose a Bible-based government and the dismantling of social
security (already happening with endless tax cuts?), public education
(already happening by setting up schools to fail and close on the basis of
"tests," then sending children who can "afford" it to private and religious
schools?), and social welfare (already happening with endless
justifications for war, and war games?).
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35397-2001Nov29.html?referer=email -

The role of Hollywood in the attacks on democracy must also be
questioned.Even though the religious right have been the ones to typically
denounce Hollywood, consider the following. First, Hollywood has had a
close relationship with government for decades. Hollywood has been used to
influence public by glorifying war when "necessary," and, when working
women did not want to return to merely homemakers after WWII, Hollywood
bombarded them with "happy homemaker" images to effectively "persuade" to
accept their "roles" as beasts of burden?

What about the current administration's recent meetings with Hollywood?
Should we expect to see movies that bombard us new attitude- and
behavior-shaping images, such as images glorifying war and war heroes,
perhaps favorable images of corporations and the CIA? Perhaps inviting
young men and women to think of themselves as "patriots" who blindly trust
leaders, aspire to become "war heroes," or be thankful for covert military
and CIA operations in the name of "protecting" us and "national security"?

Think back to the drastic increase in TV/movie violence and violence
associated with sex since the 1960s? Is it a coincidence that this was
preceded by an era of war protests when many young men chose peace and
said, "No!" to war, perhaps for the first time in history? The Vietnam era
is so repugnant to the powers that be that it barely gets mention, if at
all, in secondary school history books. Have our young men (and women) been
bombarded with images associating violence and sex to ensure they never
again say no? It's called "classical conditioning" and involves
desensitizing human response to something repulsive (war) by associating it
with something pleasurable (sex).

In the last decade, the sex/violence in TV programming, movies, music,
etc., has increased exponentially. Are we being brainwashed into accepting
this "let it all hang out" mentality as evidence that we are a "free"
society"? Have we been trained to protect harmful desensitization of human
response to violence/vulgarity as "freedoms"?

Is there a "purpose" behind this? To show, for example, that people Is
society really spinning out of control, or is this JUST WHAT radical
conservatives want us to believe in order to persuade the majority of
Americans to join the conservative Party and support tight controls of over
our civil liberties?

Is the gore and decadence a picture of how things are or an attempt to
slowly and purposefully increase the levels of decadence? Research shows
the images themselves shape new behaviors, and these behaviors are harmful
to women, children, young adults, couple relationships--society overall.

Is it just coincidence that violent crimes by children and women have grown
exponentially in the last decade?

Is this just Hollywood, or are these scripts funded by millionaire right
wing conservatives who want to "teach" women and minories who "dared" step
out of their "place" in society a "lesson," more specifically, that this
decadence is a "result" of the liberation of women and minorities to enjoy
the benefits and opportunities afforded in a democratic society?

Are women and children "inherently" wicked and violent, or do right wing
supremacists want to enforce their beliefs that hierarchical family, social
and sexual relations are "God-ordained" or "biologically determined, that
women and men should be separated into their "natural" public and private
spheres for men and women, and that war, violence are "norms"?

Regardless of Party affiliation, Americans must passionately seek to
"understand" what has happened in our country, what has been done to us,
how it happened, and why.

While the truth will likely be painful, we need to understand WHY we are
the only industrial democracy that uses capital punishment, does not have
universal health care, paid maternal leave and child care, and many other
working family-, women- and child-friendly laws, all of which have been
available for decades in other democracies.

Hopefully, financially established individuals and groups with hearts in
the right places will come forth to finance investigations, research and
public information campaigns. It will take money to rally people, in turn,
rally Congress to break the practices of corporate corruption in government
and media to restore democracy and government of, by and for the people. We
must stop playing with creative loop holes and demand TOTAL public campaign
finance reform and free media to protect our government officials from the
current levels of corruption. We must have citizen participation in
oversight of government agencies and military. We must have quality
education for every child, one that prepares them to be informed and
involved citizens and leaders with emphasis on character building, critical
thinking skills and citizenship (Dr. Benjamin Barber, "Jihad vs McWorld").

And what about civil rights organizations, like the ACLU, once a champion
for civil rights, which use the credibility they have to fight zealously
for the "free speech" of entertainers, yet have taken almost no stance in
protecting the civil rights of voting citizens, citizens' rights to protest
and rights to live safe from violence and harm, shown to result from
legalizing hate propaganda.

Not only has the ACLU been relatively silent about "free speech" rights of
Americans to protest and participate in government decisions, but they have
also been involved passionately in campaigns, such as attacks of even
ecumenical prayer in schools, which have been extremely "helpful" to right
wing religious groups. How? Most Americans, regardless of party, believe in
God, are not religious extremists, and support ecumenical prayer in
schools. ACLU's attacks on ecumenical prayer assists the efforts of
religious right wing to portray liberals, democrats, feminists, etc., as
"immoral" and "godless." It seems that the ACLU's campaigns, particularly
in the last year, have been politically well timed in "persuading" voters,
especially women, to vote for conservatives and Republicans, or support
conservative policy. Few want to support a party of the "godless"!

There are many other civil rights organizations who have been surprisingly
quiet considering the circumstances--even before September 11th. Have the
actions and agenda of civil rights or environmental organizations been
"influenced" by big donors? If so, what steps can be taken to protect them
from corporate corruption?

More conspiracy theories? Without a plan, is it possible to achieve a coup
d'etat of our country in last elections, and solidification of the coup
d'etat since, with "support" for an administration that wants to dismantle
democracy to make it easier for corporations to have free reign? A record
of their actions clearly indicates they want to create a more demoralized,
poor, sick, unemployed, uneducated citizenry by dismantling public
education, social security and social welfare? After all, isn't this how
corporations have been allowed to flourish in ME and SA? How could this
happen in American of all places without a "plan"?

The greatest threat to America is not "terrorists" or "bin Laden," but the
consolidation of radical right wing secular and religious groups, which
comprise only a small minority of the population. Brainwashed to disdain
protests and activism, riddled with addictions, drugged, lethargic from
drinking water dosed with arsenic and fluoride, could it be that we have
lived in a media-created bubble of pseudo-democracy? Is it true that the
nation that has stood for democracy has used their credibility as a
smokescreen to war against democracy and democratic rule in countries
throughout the world?

Greed and avarice-riddled plans for world dominance and control of people's
minds and behaviors led civilization to the Dark Ages, and more recently,
the Taliban rule of the beautiful people of Afghanistan. If violence and
war and police state controls were a solution, Israel (our experiment?)
would be the safest country in the world. We all know that the opposite is
true. If the experiment was intended to prove the success of a
military/police-state "democracy," it has proven to be an explosive failure
(pun intended).

According to the Golden Rule, what is wrong for one group of people is
wrong for all. If oppression is wrong for whites, it is wrong for blacks.
If it is wrong for men, it is wrong for women. If it is wrong for Jews, it
is wrong for Muslims. If it is wrong for Protestants, it is wrong for
Catholics.

It is time to publicly believe in, uphold, and expect government protection
of citizens from corporations and agencies that work against public interest.

It is time to condemn extremist government actions, schemes and domestic
terrorism that have, perhaps unwittingly, functioned together to subdue
domestic reform and justice and opportunity for ALL groups of American
citizens.

It is time to believe in citizens' rights to be informed and involved in
all government decisions and activities.
In recent words of an Afghan tribal leader, "We want peace. After 23 years,
we learned war does not end war. It brings more war. Now, we want peace."